We had a surprise visit on Wednesday night with Juan and Cynthia Gonzalez, missionary to Mexico. It was certainly good to see them. Juan shared with us a wonderful testimony and the dark place he was in last year during COVID.
Sarah Wrote: 

Lord sent us a blessing in the form of the Gonzalezs.  For anyone who may not know, they are a missionary couple we support in Mexico.  It was so good seeing them, but even better hearing what Juan had to say.  It seems last year, as I understood right before the start of covid, Mrs. Gonzalez was in California awaiting the birth of their grandbaby, when Juan developed a sore on his foot.  As we often do, he let it go too long and developed gangrene.  It seemed he was going to lose his foot.  With his wife being gone, people taking care of him he "did not like" and the prospect of losing his foot, he found himself in a very dark place.  God was with him, but as many of us have a tendency to do, after 40 yrs. of being a Pastor, he was not with God and felt he had been abandoned.  Blaming God because healing was not happening the way he thought it should.  This went on for a long while, he did not leave the house for over a year battling demons; all the while God was just winning him over closer than ever.  The devil was defeated, Juan is back, stronger than ever, teaching young men to be preachers/leaders and opening Churches all over Mexico.  He does need our continued prayers as they are in need of money for building.  He said they have one building that has a roof and two walls as they had to tear two of the walls out to make room for a growing congregation.  What a wonderful problem to have!!!  It does my heart good to know there are people hungry for God's Word and the Truth.  He recently had a baptism of 13!!!  Praise the Lord so good to hear.  He also needs our prayers for continued healing.  His foot healed, but unfortunately, because of the massive amounts of antibiotics softening the bones, his toe is broken in 3 places.  Only time, prayer and God's touch will take care of this problem.  He also brought a sermonite entitled "In Times of Trouble; Seven Steps" Mat. 14:22-.  I won't go into detail, I know I have already gotten winded, but it was very good rules to cling to.  By the way, I asked, the people that were taking care of him that he "didn't like" he grew to like them very much.  I told him I believe the Lord healed more than his foot.  I want them to both know how much they touched my heart, gave me hope for the Church family and the lost receiving the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ.